Meltdown (:)}}

[A440A@AOL.COM]

Greetings all, 
      I used to worry about pianos and water.  One of my very first "paying"
jobs during my training found me at a senile lady's house, trying to explain
why I could not tune her upright, because I couldn't move the 40 gallon
aquarium off of it by myself.  She said that she put it up there by herself,
and forgetting that she had filled it by many trips with a small pail,  stated
that if she could put it up, then she could take it down.  {I'm
thinking......H20 at eight lbs per gallon.......the ol' gal was gonna clean
and jerk 320 lbs off the Ivers and Pond! I left and have always wondered if
she tried }.
     I worried mightily when I had to wash the stage pianos down.  All that
water had to be dried off so quickly.  Water and pianos just don't mix.
    I got to test this recently.  After totally disassembling a 1914 Steinway
O, there was nothing but the laminated rim left, and the bent side was badly
burned.  I placed this shell outside in the weather, so that it would
magically unfold as the hide glue softened, and I would be left with a stack
of maple!!  Easy as pie. 
    Well,  it has been soaked by rains, yard sprinklers etc. for several
weeks, and guess what?  Nothing has come loose but some edge veneer.   The
ends have not moved apart, and the laminations show no signs of loosening.  
     Perhaps pianos are more washable than I thought.   I'll let the list know
how long it takes for a case to melt. 
REgards, 
Ed Foote